Société sénégalaise du droit d’auteur et des droits voisins
Senegal's collective management society for copyright and related rights, based in Dakar.
SODAV (Société Sénégalaise du Droit d’Auteur et des Droits Voisins) is Senegal’s collecting society for copyright and related rights. It was authorised on 7 March 2016, under Décret n° 2016-322, to take over collective management from the Bureau Sénégalais du Droit d’Auteur (BSDA), the public body that had performed the role for the previous four decades. The handover marked a change in legal form as well as leadership: SODAV is a private, non-profit civil society run by its member rightsholders, where the BSDA had been a state establishment under the Ministry of Culture.
The society licenses public performance and broadcast use of music and other creative works in Senegal, collects the resulting royalties, and distributes them to songwriters, composers, publishers and other rightsholders. It also registers works on behalf of members and administers reciprocal representation agreements with foreign collecting societies, including Mali’s BUMDA. SODAV is chaired by Ngoné Ndour, with Aly Bathily as Managing Director. For 2025 it reported more than 13,000 registered members and said it collected 677 million FCFA, distributing 429 million FCFA of that to rightsholders.
As the only body authorised by the Senegalese state to perform this role, SODAV sits at the centre of how songwriters and composers in Senegal get paid for the public use of their work, including by broadcasters, venues and event organisers.
